The TROL (Targeting Roguexe and Opaque Letters) Act of 2014 (PDF), which passed by a 13-6 vote yesterday, is modest in scope. It only targets patent trolls that send out "demand letters" that some believe are misleading. The bill would make the act of sending a patent demand letter "in bad faith" punishable as an "unfair or deceptive act" under the FTC Act.

Sending a letter would only be a crime if the letter met certain conditions, such as attempting to assert an invalid patent.

Even with that narrow focus, some reformers believe the bill leaves trolls too much room to maneuver. They say it could take away power from law enforcement agencies that are already looking into or taking action against trolls, including the Federal Trade Commission and states attorneys general.

Several states have already pushed forward with their own consumer-protection laws that target patent demand letters, and more are likely on the way. The TROL Act would pre-empt those laws—as well as the active debate going on in statehouses about the damage caused by trolls.

"The TROL Act would actually empower trolls and insulate abusive conduct," said Ed Black, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which supported more widespread reforms. "That's why patent trolls are supporting it, and those like us who want real reforms are not."

Groups that pushed hard to kill the more wide-ranging Innovation Act have praised the TROL Act as being appropriately targeted. The bill "sensibly targets abusive demand letter practices while respecting legitimate patent-related communications, which are integral to the functioning of the patent system," wrote Innovation Alliance Director Brian Pomper in a letter to the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee.

Earlier this week, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy gave an interview about the failure of patent reform to his hometown paper, the Burlington Free Press. He said he was "furious with what happened" and confirmed it was Reid who wouldn't let the legislation come to the Senate floor.

"I think that's wrong, but I'm not going to give up," he added.

Worse than nothing?

Only two Democrats on the subcommittee voted in favor of the TROL Act. Those who opposed mainly did so because it was too weak and could actually hamper FTC and state efforts to crack down.

"There are major problems that make this bill, as I see it, unworkable," said the committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), according to a report in The Hill.

Passing the TROL Act would give "an excuse for the Senate not to act on the comprehensive bill," said Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), according to National Journal.

The CCIA's patent counsel, Matt Levy, said the bill was "a sincere attempt to rein in patent trolls," but that at the end of the day the TROL Act was a "well-intentioned, but dangerous, bill."

The Main Street Patent Coalition, a broad range of business groups that had pushed for the Innovation Act, sent a letter to the subcommittee asking for the bill to be improved before enactment. As it is, the bill diverges from traditional consumer protection law, which simply bans deceptive activities, explained the Main Street Patent Coalition in a letter to the subcommittee. "By requiring the FTC to prove a troll's bad faith, the bill seems likely to make enforcement against trolls harder rather than easier."

Not every pro-reform group is opposed.

"Simply by requiring that demand letters identify the infringing activity and the patent and claim infringed, the new law should help curb abusive patent troll practices," said App Developers Alliance President Jon Potter, who supports more comprehensive patent reform as well.

The type of trolls that send out thousands of demand letters have earned a special ire from Congress over the course of the last year. In a debate held by her subcommittee, Sen. Claire McCaskill called the letters "scams" and the entities that send them out "bottom feeders."

Often-cited cases include MPHJ Technology, which sent out thousands of letters to small businesses asking them to pay $1,000 per employee for using scanners; and Innovatio IP Ventures, which sent out more than 13,000 letters to chain hotels and coffee shops asking them to pay thousands for a license to use off-the-shelf Wi-Fi routers.

MPHJ has come under legal attack, and it's wrapped up in simultaneous litigation against the FTC as well as attorneys general in Vermont and Nebraska.

Large router companies intervened in Innovatio's case to prevent lawsuits against their customers. In February, Cisco reached a deal to pay Innovatio $2.7 million, or 3.2 cents per router.

How about not just any "L" word, but the "L" word: Targeting Rogue and Opaque Letters Lesbians

Sure it doesn't make sense, but at least it makes for a better acronym. Honestly, the one thing I expect the government to be good as is coming up with acronyms, but now they can't even do that properly.

It's so funny how much the US government caves in to big content, big corp, and lobbyists left and right. But heaven forbid they do anything, other than lips service as they kiss the ass of corporate America, to help the US citizen or small business which they tout they are helping but aren't. Rules, laws, they seem to have lost their meaning to the American politicians if it can' help them get money, political favors, a job in the private industry as a top exec or lobbyist, a little hug 'n tug with a reach around is what these elected official are all wanting and waiting for.

Take out or keep in president and add in congress and this quote from years ago still rings true.

“The president’s rocking chair is a perfect symbol of his presidency: It gives the illusion of movement without actually moving forward.”

I've long thought placing restrictions on demand letters should be a part of the solution to the patent mess.

I would require that:1. All parties with a financial interest in the patent should be listed, and their percent interest disclosed. This includes any law firm working on contingency or any collection/licensing agency. Someone sending a demand letter who is exercising the patent AND who does not license it at all would be exempt.

2. The demand letter must list any previous owners who had licensed the patent.

3. The relevant patents and relevant claims must be listed in the letter.

4. Anyone sending more than 5 demand letters per year, aggregate, must register them in a national DB that is publicly available/searchable via the web. The registration would include the letter sender, the patent owner, any party at interest controlling the demand, the patent number, and the name and address (or email address) the demand letter was sent to. The recipient address would not be public on the web, but would be available to the USPTO, the FTC, and other federal and state government agencies, and to attorneys representing parties that had received a demand letter from the sender. Such addresses would be confidential.

In my state, anyone who claims a patent suit must by law show proof of ownership, including the primary holders name and address.

Even if the troll attempts to back out, they must still supply this information if requested. If they do not, the other party may request 3x all costs covered to handle the request, up to $100k, no trial required.

If you attempt to troll education, medical, or government regulated food producer, they may request up to 3x the costs, with no cap on damages.

I forgot to add, if you're attempting to sue someone over a patent, you must also provide all past and current entities whom have been contacted about this patent. This means no NDAs to protect trolls from withholding other people they're are or have attempted to "extort".

This is not part of a trial discovery process. All of this information must be provided on demand to the party being targeted/threatened. Even if the troll tried to back out, they must provide this information. They are required to by state law. If they don't, then they're breaking state law and best hope not to travel here.

The state government will even convert your civil request for money into a state fine. Helps get around having to take the troll to civil court over losses, and instead the state just says "Hey, pay this fine". Not paying a fine means getting a warrant. Suck it!

The fashion industry seems to do well without copyright or patent protections for their designs.

Would eliminating patents really harm the tech industry?

Yes. The fashion industry has drastically lower R&D. Some form of IP protection is necessary, though patents shouldn't apply at all in most cases even under current law. All software already enjoys copyright protections anyways, and they can be leveraged with contract law to a degree.

In our greed based society, we can't discriminate against one money-grubbing company over another, else we'll be hypocrites. That being said, parasite corporations who are not actively engaged in manufacturing should not be allowed to exist. The whole idea behind the patent system was to protect manufacturing, not to enable money-grubbers to buy patents and then extort money from legitimate companies who are actively engaged in making a product. The law should be changed to require a patent holder to be actively engaged in manufacturing before they are given standing to be able to sue for infringement. I'm sure sharper minds can come up with something better than what I suggest, but that should be the gist of it.

“This is not a patent reform bill” Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) complained,despite other democrats praising the overhaul. “This is a bigcorporation patent giveaway that tramples on the right of smallinventors.”

Senator Cantwell is right. All these bills do is legalize theft. Just because they call it “reform” doesn’t mean it is. The paid puppets of banks, huge multinationals, and China continue to brain wash and bankrupt America.

They should have called these bills the America STOPS Inventing Act or ASIA, because that’s where they’re sending all our jobs. The present bill (vers 1, 2, 3, etc) is nothing less than another giveaway for huge multinationals and China and an off shoring job killing nightmare for America. Even the leading patent expert in China has stated these bills will help them steal our inventions.

Patent reform is a fraud on America. These bills will not do what they claim they will. What they will do is help large multinational corporations maintain their monopolies by robbing and destroying their small entity and startup competitors (so it will do exactly what they paid for) and with them the jobs they would have created. They have already damaged the US patent system so that property rights are teetering on lawlessness. These bills will only make it harder and more expensive for small firms to get and enforce their patents. Without patents we cant get funded. In this way large firms are able to play king of the hill and keep their small competitors from reaching the top as they have. Yet small entities create the lion’s share of new jobs. According to recent studies by the Kauffman Foundation and economists at the U.S. Census Bureau, “startups aren’t everything when it comes to job growth. They’re the only thing.” Meanwhile, the large multinationals ship more and more jobs overseas. These bills are a wholesale destroyer of American jobs.

Small entities and inventors have been given far too little voice on this bill when one considers that they rely far more heavily on the patent system than do large firms who can control their markets by their size alone. The smaller the firm, the more they rely on patents -especially startups and individual inventors. Congress and Obama tinkering with patent law while gagging inventors is like a surgeon operating before examining the patient.

Those wishing to help fight big business giveaways and set America on a course for sustainable prosperity, not large corporation lobbied poverty, should contact us as below and join the fight as we are building a network of inventors and other stakeholders to lobby Congress to restore property rights for all patent owners -large and small, and the jobs they bring.

It is typical. Kick the can down the road by making it look like they are doing something, either without doing anything or making the problem worse. Rinse and repeat until the calmour gets loud enough to threaten their ability to get re-elected. Then reluctantly do something about it.

From what I have consumed in reading about these patent laws...it seems very obvious to me that these "lawyers" are using the courts to frustrate the owners of these products, and the courts are NOT doing anything to stop these Litigious lawyers and demanding letters from proving they have "lost" or have been defrauded in their intellectual properties and inventions.

To me...............if someone invents [ any shape or form ] anything and has a pattern to it, then it should ONLY belong to them and should it be sold on,then whom-ever buys it, may ONLY seek a % no greater than 10% of the value of it.......WHY.......because to me, the person who invented-patented it, no longer has it and therefore becomes useless to [ him-her-them ].

example from me to you [reader]...I buy a router-wifi, I paid for it, including all licensing fee-royalties etc in the origin price ..... all future claims become null and void,due to me originally paying for it on purchase!

HOW many times do they expect you to pay for something you paid for it already?............I know this is obviously a very simplistic view, but really how { hard } does it have to be?